ISLAMABAD � Four policemen were shot and killed Thursday in southwest Pakistan by a group of Islamic militants.

A spokesman for the Baluchistan provincial government says the policemen were on a routine patrol in the capital city, Quetta,when the gunmen intercepted their vehicle and sprayed it with bullets before fleeing the scene. The dead officers included police Superintendent Mubarak Shah.

A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban calling itself Jamaatul Ahrar has claimed responsibility for the attack. Additionally, Islamic State, through its global mouthpiece, the Amaq News Agency, is now also claiming responsibility for Thursday’s attack on police in Quetta.

The United Nations earlier this week designated Jamaatul Ahrar a global terrorist organization, saying the group operates out of neighboring Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.

A suicide bomber riding a motorbike on Monday blew himself up near a police vehicle in the town of Chaman, near the Afghan border, killing the district police chief and two others. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.

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